Andrew Cuomo Pressed by the Media for Failed Nursing Home Policies: Responds With ‘Who Cares?… They died!’

In case you missed it, the New York AG released a scathing report about Governor Cuomo’s handling of COVID-19 in New York.

NY AG issues scathing report saying Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s Dept of Health underreported nursing homes deaths by as much as 50%.https://t.co/UybIkNZLuh

— Buck Sexton (@BuckSexton) January 28, 2021

Governor @NYGovCuomo and his people have been silent on this blistering report by the NY Attorney General today. https://t.co/V04HrtKebY

— Brett Davidsen (@whec_bdavidsen) January 28, 2021

Thursday's report dealt a blow to Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s oft-repeated claims that his state is doing better than others in protecting its most vulnerable. https://t.co/HuaU8ZD1xa

— Daily Gazette (@dgazette) January 28, 2021

While Cuomo was selling books and corny poster art, his administration hid the true damage of his policy to send active COVID-19 patients to nursing homes.

The policy led to catastrophe in the state’s long-term care facilities.

.@JaniceDean lost two family members in a New York nursing home early in the pandemic—and she's been fighting to expose Cuomo's role in the thousands of tragic and avoidable nursing home deaths ever since.

Today families are closer than ever to answers and justice thanks to her. pic.twitter.com/9fpRSIX2UW

— Steve Scalise (@SteveScalise) January 28, 2021

Attorney General Letitia James’s office looked into the Cuomo administration’s totals and found the real figure may be as high as 13,000 https://t.co/Srkxr8vc1P

— New York Magazine (@NYMag) January 29, 2021

At the time of writing, New York still leads America as the state with the most total deaths.

Yet, Gov Cuomo still won’t take responsibility for his policies that had such disastrous results.

Here’s the governor getting grilled by the press about the report:

Cuomo on nursing home deaths: “Who cares [where they died]? They died!” pic.twitter.com/VECpQNKF2I

— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) January 29, 2021

Yikes!

Could you imagine if President Trump uttered “Who cares?… They died!”

The media would be in a frenzy for days and it’s all we would ever hear.

But for Cuomo, he doesn’t even have to acknowledge his mistakes.

No apologies.

No responsibility.

No sympathy.

Nothing.

Just a callous response saying they died, oh well.

It does matter that they died Cuomo because your policies played a role in tens of thousands of deaths.

Somehow, our upside down world thinks New York had one of the best responses to COVID-19.

They even awarded Cuomo an Emmy.

Please.

The Blaze reported on Cuomo’s outburst:

New York state Democratic Attorney General Letitia James dropped a bombshell report on Thursday alleging that the number of coronavirus-related deaths at nursing homes in New York could be undercounted by as much as 50%. When New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) was pressed about the accuracy of the state’s nursing home deaths, he lashed out with a response that the New York Post called “callous.”

The scathing report found that the state counted only coronavirus-related deaths that occurred at nursing homes and long-term care facilities, but did not count nursing home residents who died at hospitals after being transferred there for medical care.

During a press conference on Friday, WHEC-TV reporter Jennifer Kewke asked Cuomo, “Governor, your staff is often unapologetically aggressive when it comes to defending your policies, particularly on social media. But in this case, many of the people who disagree with this nursing home policy have a very personal connection to it, they lost a loved one during this pandemic with a connection to a nursing home. So, the policy itself aside…who was right, who was wrong… just as a father and son yourself, what would your message be to those families today?

Cuomo responded, “What I would say is everyone did the best they could.”

Cuomo then passed the blame on the federal government, “When I say the State Department of Health as the report said, The State Department of Health followed federal guidance so if you think there was a mistake then go talk to the federal government.”

“If you look at New York State, we have a lower percentage of deaths in nursing homes than other states. A third of all deaths in this nation are from nursing homes,” the Democratic governor said. “New York state we’re only about 28% … but were below the national average in number of deaths in nursing homes.”

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Cuomo then blurted, “But who cares?” 33 [percent], 28 [percent], died in a hospital, died in a nursing home—they died!”

Even the Washington Post called Cuomo’s response a “bad ‘who cares’ answer on coronavirus nursing home data.”

“From a public policy perspective, we should care,” wrote Aaron Blake. “A death is indeed a death, but there are major and very valid questions about whether nursing home policies led to unnecessary ones.”

Cuomo has been questioned on his leadership regarding nursing homes during the COVID-19 pandemic. On March 25, Cuomo instituted a directive that took coronavirus-infected elderly patients who were discharged from hospitals and allowed them to be transferred to New York’s nursing homes to free up hospital beds.

Cuomo’s controversial directive was rescinded on May 10. The directive has been removed from the state’s health department website.

A report from the Associated Press in May claimed that more than 4,300 recovering coronavirus patients were sent to nursing homes because of Cuomo’s directive.